Australia’s Marc Polmans and Jordan Thompson are through to the semifinals of the $100,000 US ATP Challenger tournament in Stockton, California.
Jordan Thompson in Canberra at the ATP Challenger event November 2016
Polmans the no. 8 seed was first through to the semis after he defeated Great Britain’s Liam Broady 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Broady is the world no. 274 and he had defeated Polmans in the opening round of the Aptos Challenger in early August this year. Broady’s best Challenger result in 2018 came when he reached the semifinals at the Rennes, France tournament back in January.
Marc Polmans faces Maxime Janvier in the Stockton semis. (Photo by Rob Keating, http://photos.keatingmedia.com.au)
Thompson also booked a semi-final spot when he defeated USA’s world no. 127 Noah Rubin 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3. Rubin had recently reached the round of 16 at the ATP 500 event in Washington and won the Tallahassee Challenger title in April when he defeated Polmans in the final.
Both Polmans and Thompson have won ATP Challenger titles in 2018. Polmans taking the Launceston $75,000 title in February. Thompson also winning in February when he won the $50,000 Chennai Open. Thompson the world no. 106 has also lost four ATP Challenger finals in 2018.
Thompson will play South Africa’s world no. 121 Lloyd Harris. The South African recently won the $75,000 Lexington Challenger title before losing the final of the Aptos Challenger to Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis the following week.
Polmans faces France’s world no. 272 Maxime Janvier in the second semi-final. Janvier is playing in his third ATP Challenger semi in 2018 after losing in Canberra in January and on home soil in Lille back in March.
France’s Maxime Janvier plays a backhand against Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in their round two match at the Canberra Challenger in January 2018. Photo by Rob Keating, http://photos.keatingmedia.com.au
If Thompson wins the Stockton title he will return to the ATP top-100 rankings with a projected ranking of no. 91, tied with Jason Kubler. Polmans can rise to a career-high ranking of around no. 136. He is currently projected to be ranked at no. 153 if he loses to Janvier. That would also be a career-high for Polmans.
